It's Who We Are
by TheDevilsLovingBitch
Summary: The arrival of Kagome Higurashi... has thrown the Substitute Shinigami's world into chaos. He always thought that Kagome was well... different, special, unique... if only he knew just how right his belief was. The question is, just what secret is she hidi
1. Chapter 1 ICHI

**It's Who We Are**

Entirely different - and unrelated - to Night of the Hunter or any of the BLEACH crossovers to date.

_-.-_

_thoughts_

_**mental thoughts/conversations**_

**amplified meanings**

* * *

_*This is twenty percent skill, _  
_Eighty percent fear*_

Breathing heavily through tightly pursed lips Kagome Higurashi… guardian of the accursed Shikon no Tama which upon its completion had fallen into her care for making a wish upon the marble sized gemstone was damned to cause chaos for no wish was ever entirely selfless… squinted against the intrusion of sunlight that filtered through the buildings. Despite her Asian features her eyes were a distinctive azure, a deep sort of sea blue that was untarnished by brown or green or any other color except for the slivers of amber that speckled the irises closest to her pupils, and as such slightly more sensitive to light had she been born with brown eyes. But she wouldn't trade her uniquely tinted gaze for the world. It marked her as different from someone else after all.

And maybe that was why she was here rather than having stayed for any more than a few months within the Sunset Shrine. Oh she loved her mother and her brother and who could forget her eccentric grandfather however there were somethings that pretending to be a normal human being could not simply subdue. She had struggled through five years within the depths of feudal Japan, fighting against demons the likes of which only haunted her grandfather and came live in the other's animated tales but were not nearly as frightening as the real things. She had assisted in the defeat of the dark hanyou, Naraku, even if some part of her was truly… moved… by the once human. Onigumi had desperately sought something that he couldn't have and in that sense Kagome could relate.

After all, she had never gotten Inuyasha.

Thinking about the past is a terrible thing to do, lips curved slightly at the mental thought. Even if ignoring the past was nearly impossible. Aside from the jagged scar torn into the right side of her ribs where all those… years… ago Miss. Centipede had torn the Shikon no Tama from her flesh Kagome's light frame was littered with scars. They were only visible though to more than the causal observer. The tiny marks where blades had evaded her guard, cutting into her skin, leaving behind scars because she had sought to heal worse wounds than something as fickle as a small nick. She had long since quit with childish ideals… they having been beaten out of her under strict training.

_But I can't complain,_ had Sesshomaru, the dai-youkai forever grateful when she had returned his arm to him for having come to the group's assistance against the ever more powerful Naraku, not trained her… even as viciously as he had… she would have died in that battlefield. As it was she had survived…

Only for Kagome to find herself in Karakura Town now and as such standing before a particular building considering the lights… and pondering just how to approach the door. Funny that. It wasn't like she was an entire stranger even if she hadn't seen anyone from the Kurosaki household in the five years that she had been travelling back and forth from the modern world to feudal Japan. They were **_family_** after all. She had spent countless hours, as a young brat… amusement trickled through her veins, trying desperately to dye someone's hair a more presentable dark color. Of course they had both gotten into trouble.

"Ichigo," the shout that wafted through one of the open window's tore at Kagome's concentration. "Are you taking the garbage out?"

"Yeah, yeah…" The second voice grew in volume as the heavy oak door slammed open. "I'm taking the gar…"

The rest of her younger man's sentence died as a pair of cinnamon brown eyes caught and met Kagome's own azure tinted eyes. His orange hair was slightly longer than usual adding a sort of boyish look that really did go against the scowl that was dominating his features. For a brief moment Kagome was taken aback by just how fit he was… with just a simple wife beater on this wasn't the same scrawny kid that she had last lied eyes upon nearly five years ago. He was buff. And it went beyond simply getting into fights… he always did… at school.

"Hey ya's Ichigo." Hoping that maybe it'd make him close his mouth, Kagome added a friendly little wave at the end.

_**"KAGOME!"**_


	2. Chapter 2

_**SETTING:** _This is set AFTER the bit surrounding Rukia and Aizen's betrayal. Think of it during the time that the Vizards appear and Arrancar start showing up.

-.-

_thoughts_

_*****mental conversations*****_

**_amplified thoughts/meanings_**

* * *

_*****Wise men wonder while strong men die*****_

**CHARACTER CHANGE - Ichigo**

"Kagome," dimly Ichigo was aware of the cracking sound as the garbage bag… some glass it seemed hitting the pavement… dropped. "What on earth?"

For a moment he was almost certain that it was his imagination. He had heard from her... well their... grandfather that the other being had been suffering from a string of maladies that had caused his father to laugh and chuckle though the older Kurosaki didn't elaborate. Ichigo wasn't entirely stupid. He knew that some of the illnesses were literally pulled out of their grandfather's ass... some after all would be fatal and yet the old man relayed the information as if Kagome was suffering a common cold...

A flush dominated his cousin's… older by 11 months… features. It made her look surprisingly younger than him or maybe it was the fact that as of right now, he had experienced so much already that made Ichigo see his cousin in a different light. Kagome Higurashi… she was afraid of bugs and would run screaming from anything that even crawled towards her when they'd been children… was the last person **_EVER_** that Ichigo could see doing anything like he did as a Substitute Shinigami. She was far too kind for her own good after all. Something he remembered even from years ago… his mother had after all pointed this particular feature out when Kagome had given him her ice cream cause he'd gotten distracted and the frozen treat had fallen from the cone and onto the ground.

She was too nice. The worst, he remembered, that Kagome Higurashi had ever done was to "sic" Yasutora Sado, Chad, on him. Gods he remembered that his friend had taken it all in stride even if in the long run it had been Kagome who got frustrated with either of their lacking interest. Who knew what went through his... he'd say eccentric but then what did that make him?... cousin's mind.

"Ichi," but then the name was so unnervingly like that a 11th Division lieutenant leveled at Ichigo that it was a struggle not to grimace, "are you just going to stand there?"

"Ah," brown eyes flickered from the dark haired female to his intended task. "Shit."

It seemed that indeed that something glass-like in the garbage bag had struck the pavement at the wrong angle from in a slowly increasing pool was a vaguely orangey liquid. Marmalade in coloration though it wasn't jam. Some sort of experiment that Karin had been doing if his memory served him right… and which had stained his younger sister's clothes the same ugly orange hue. For a moment thoughts of his cousin took a literal back seat in the depths of Ichigo's mind as he leant down. If that orange junk stained the sidewalk than there was no doubt in his mind that his father would make him work over the summer replacing the soiled stone with new.

"Here, let me help." And there was that put people before others first attitude. It was the reason why Kagome had always gotten good grades in school when they had attended the same class and Ichigo had ended up in detention for some fight or another about his "strawberry" hair.

"No, I'm fine..."

The rest of Ichigo's sentence was lost in a curse, he seemed to be doing that more and more often as time went by, as his fingers pricked on something sharp. It was like a paper cut sort of deal. Not deep but it hurt like the devil himself and Ichigo grimaced pulling fingers free from the ripping plastic of the garbage bag to examine his hand. There was a distinctive reddish hint to his fingertips where a broken piece of glass had cut into the softness of his hand. It looked like it was going to require stitches.

"Here."

"Kagome..." The rest of his sentence, to leave him and his wound alone, died as his older cousin's hands enveloped him. But it wasn't the chill of her fingertips. It was the bizarre pink, like a soft rosy red, glow emitting from her skin... her hands... that stilled his tongue.

* * *

**CHARACTER CHANGE - Kagome**

_*****In this land of make believe, dead and dry*****_

It was instinct, the sight of blood... gods she had seen so much blood in merely 2 years of life while struggling to repair the accursed Shikon no Tama... that caused Kagome to reach for Ichigo's injured hand. It seemed that the fickleness of the gods were against her. When she had needed her miko abilities the most they had deserted her... leaving her drained and nearly catatonic after sealing the Shikon into a state that no one would ever see it as anymore than a shiny marble. And yet now that the Shikon... she had entrusted it for people of great caliber... no longer in her possession her miko abilities had returned to her.

How else did she explain the soft pinkish glow that emitted from her hands, surrounding her cousin's injured hand. Before her eyes the cut... it had to be nearly two inches long gouged into the palm of his hand... began to stitch itself together as it healed.

So maybe she should have put a little more thought before acting. Azure eyes blinked as she took in her cousin's owl-eyed expression. "Ichigo, close your mouth before a fly flies in."

* * *

**Pairings:**

I am pretty open. I have who I want in my mind but if someone better is suggested I might swing the story that way. Please if you suggest something **DO NOT** make it Inuyasha or Inuyasha characters. I NEVER do crossovers and canon pairings.

If you're wondering as to the "quotes" in * then consider them. They'll be important later. A sort of preamble.

-.-

SUMMARY

Kagome is 18 years old, I will be bumping up everyone's age by a year. So Ichigo is 17 instead.

Kagome mentions that her miko abilities "abandoned" her after sealing the Shikon at the time when she needed them **MOST. This will be important.**

Obviously Ichigo knows nothing of Kagome's abilities. Until now that is.


	3. Chapter 3

For the record, through a PM, Aizen for a pairing is currently leading the way. The suggested idea is quite interesting and probably be totally unexpected. I might do a snippet for taste later, see how people take to that idea.

However suggestions will be accepted until I say otherwise.

And for the record, chapter 1 said Kagome was venturing about for 5 years in between feudal Japan and modern Japan. Ignore that. It's 3 years. 15 to 18, her current age.

_-.-_

_thoughts_

_*****mental conversations*****_

**_amplified thoughts/meanings_**

* * *

"Kagome," if she didn't know any better she could have sworn that she had grown a second head and maybe a pair of horns, "just what the hell did you do just now."

What no thanks for healing his hand before he bled to death... however unlikely that was... Kagome could feel her lips curve downwards in a frown that nearly mirrored her younger cousin's. Nearly. It seemed Ichigo had more experience in frowning than he did in smiling. He was definitely beating her in the annoyed frustrated... absolutely confused, she was surprised his mouth hadn't stayed popped open like a fish out of water... look that happened to be dominating the orange haired teenager's features.

"Um," she wanted a distraction. How was she supposed to say that she'd reacted on instinct and by and large she had thought her miko abilities were nearly diminished to nothingness now.

"Ichigo," the voice came from the doorway, "who are you talking to?"

_Saved by the devil himself,_ breathe escaping in a relieved huff Kagome straightened from where she had crouched beside her injured cousin. "Occhan [friendly/causal way of saying uncle], it's me."

"Uncle?" There was no denying the question to the sentence itself. While the body that was standing in the door shifted, taking a few steps closer so that he could see better. It was getting dark and really except for the street light and a handful of stars... the moon thank heavens was nowhere to be seen hidden behind clouds as it was... there was little to no light. For a moment she was certain that the older man didn't recognize her but then as she watched the frown... now she saw where Ichigo got that look from... slowly morphed into a grin. "Kagome Higurashi, why didn't you say you were visiting."

Even Isshin Kurosaki... overdramatic and sometimes moronic doctor that he was... what her aunt had seen in the man was beyond her... was better than facing a cranky Ichigo. "I just got here, spur of the moment."

Indeed it was spur of the moment but she wasn't going to say how much of a spur. There were somethings that one conveyed and there were somethings that you never relied, even to close family such as members of the Kurosaki household had been for the Higurashi clan. At least not right away. Kagome knew that she was going to have to relay the information sooner rather than later... they did deserve to know... but right now having drained her energy in healing Ichigo's hand she was.

"You wouldn't happen to have anything to eat would you?"

* * *

**CHARACTER CHANGE - Ichigo**

His mouth dropped open again as if she had arrived in broad daylight, with announcement long before she was supposed to arrive, his father accepted the dark haired and blue eyed woman with an offer of microwaving some left over pizza. Had his father **_NOT_** seen the pink glow?

After all it had been at its height nearly the size of a beach ball, close to four feet round and three feet high. It had almost lit the entire corner of the lawn, causing the stone walkway to glow an eerie reflective rose sheen with the rain that had yet to dry completely from the afternoon storm, and literally a blind guy would have noticed it. The energy... and that was the only thing that came to mind... had been warm saturating Ichigo's flesh in a way that was similar to what Unohana had healed him after fighting Byakuya and Aizen.

And yet somehow different. Kagome's was weaker, yes... but more refined. Like a breeze compared to the near overburdening strength behind the 4th Captain's abilities.

"Ichigo," his father again... "hurry up. The garage isn't going to clean itself up."

_Shit. _Just his rotten luck.

* * *

Short chapter yes, however I am quite busy right now with digital 3D projects that need to be completed by the 6th.


	4. Chapter 4

_-.-_

_thoughts_

_*****mental conversations*****_

**_amplified thoughts/meanings_**

* * *

The clink of dish against dish filled the air as Kagome busied herself with finishing the dishes that the Kurosaki household had apparently left to dry in the air after their original meal, it was much better than silence. It was much better than facing the other that was sitting at the table drinking coffee of all things. He should know better, the caffeine would keep him up all night. Even though he hadn't said anything Kagome could feel a pair of eyes digging into her back, considering her with quiet observation. He had set the stove to broil as a means of cooking up the fish, even this late, for there was nothing else to offer and so there was nothing else to do but wait.

Even when she had said she'd just take off for the local corner store, he had refused.

After all she was a guest, however unannounced her presence within the Kurosaki household happened to be, and it was something of bad manners not to offer a guest something even if that something was as simple as green tea. That was why the black kettle had been pulled out. However, as she had taken the first sip of the tea itself sweetened with some honey and spiced with the tang of lemon her stomach had decided that flavoured water wasn't enough. She had flushed nearly the shade of a tomato as the other's eyes had widened before a smirk had graced his features.

"You think your son would help."

She had seen Ichigo. The carrot topped male had after all skirted into the kitchen, muttering something that had suspiciously sounded like he couldn't believe this, before he had grabbed a bottled water from the fridge. Forget saying hello. Or stopping for an actual conversation. Instead Ichigo had glanced around the kitchen, a frown marring his features, and fled for the safety of upstairs. What? Did he really think she was as bad as when they had been children, and that she was going to torment him. She wasn't entirely sure of Ichigo but some of them had matured over the years.

"There's an exam he has to study for tomorrow," Isshin Kurosaki's voice was soft barely a few decimals above a whisper.

_Oh? Then who was the person she felt with her baby cousin?_

Though her abilities had diminished, considerably for she had never received proper training to begin with and as such her skills had lacked all through the time spent in feudal Japan, Kagome possessed a defined sense for detecting spiritual energy. It had developed she supposed as an offshoot of her ability to detect Shikon no Tama shards. Ichigo's energy signature was hard to miss, he stood out like a literal sore thumb even though something told her he was trying to restrain that energy. The other being was far smaller in comparison, like a flickering candle flame and that what up and down signature was what had caught Kagome's attention. Was the other injured? Or just weak and uncertain?

Still humming softly to show that she had heard, for seeing as she hadn't seen them she supposed the twins were asleep, Kagome settled herself with running some water to rewash a plate that looked as if it hadn't seen an inch of soap before it had been placed in the tray to dry. Really. This lack of order reminded her vaguely of her own home and how Souta would try anything to get out of work, including not doing the dishes properly. It wasn't that her brother was a bad kid it was more that he didn't possess the ability to prioritize properly. Games came before work, even if that work included homework for school.

"It's not like I'm complaining," it sounded like it but she really didn't care either way. In truth it might be better that Ichigo wasn't here because she didn't feel like explaining herself.

She was tired and cold and hungry. And wanted nothing more than to put her head in a pillow and fall asleep. Forget what had happened.


	5. PAIRINGS REQUEST

Request for pairings

Make suggestions please


	6. Chapter 6

_-.-_

_thoughts_

_*****mental conversations*****_

**_amplified thoughts/meanings_**

**_**remembered thoughts**_**

* * *

_*****I'm alive, for you, _  
_ I'm awake. Because of you, _  
_ I'm alive. I told you, _  
_ I'm awake swallowing you alive!*****_

**_**Kagome look out**._ **

Shooting upright in bed, muscles clenching against the sudden movement as her heart beat a frantic tempo against the cage of her ribs, Kagome Higurashi merely sat in bed. Beneath strands of ebony black hair a pair of azure tinted eyes stared unblinkingly at the wall in front of her. Unseeing, registering nothing. Not even the light of the moon as it filtered through the window was enough to cause her to blink. If anyone was to look in on her at this very moment they would have been immediately concerned for every muscle underneath skin kissed with a light summer tan was tense and the skin itself was covered in a light sweat. But then concern probably would have given way to fright as with no morning warning than when she had shot upright, Kagome flopped back into the bed.

A moment later, fingers brushing through tangled strands of hair, Kagome Higurashi lay in bed trying to figure out first where she was and second why the ceiling happened to be a soft cream coloration when the bedroom she had always possessed in the Sunset Shrine was lavender. For a brief moment her mind replaced the concrete and plaster ceiling with thatched roofing of a small hut. She could almost smell the stench of burning timbers and dried blood, the bitterness of herbs tickling her tongue so vivid that Kagome could have sworn she was back in feudal Japan rather than in Western Tokyo... Karakura Town specifically.

There was no blood running down her side from where claws had dug mercilessly into her flesh. She could not taste the bittersweet tang of copper in her mouth. Her leg was not broken. Inu...

Mentally stopping herself as thoughts of the inu hanyou came to mind, that was all she needed to do start blubbering like a babe when her baby cousin happened to be asleep just across the hallway and would doubtlessly hear her, Kagome struggled into a sitting position again. The shirt hides the scars that mar her skin. She is not just talking of the wicked scarring which came when Miss. Centipede had bitten the Shikon no Tama from her flesh. She had been a naïve little girl in the depths of feudal Japan, one that Naraku had sought to break at one point and who had damn well near succeeded because Inuyasha had been too busy with Kikyo.

_It was just a bad dream, _another one to add to the seemingly endless series of nightmares that plagued her thoughts. _You're tired, in a strange house._

The excuses were easy to her mind. But Kagome knew very well even if she was within the depths of the Sunset Shrine she would be tossing and turning with restless slumber. She had lost track of how many times she had woken with a scream dying on the tip of her tongue, her mother's alarmed face appearing in the doorway moments after the echo had diminished. It was because of this that when Kagome had sought to move out... her father had been a doctor, the family wasn't bad off and there was a college fund that with her horrid grades she would probably never attend... because she could not tolerate how her brother and mother and grandfather would walk about her as if walking on eggshells in the morning.

Hand dropping, knowing that she wouldn't be capable of getting to sleep until she had assured herself that all was quiet in the house, Kagome drew her legs closer to her body. It was a half assed lotus position, one best for meditation, but at the very least the position brought with it a semblance of remembered calmness. Her miko abilities were something that would never be brought under complete control, something that her training with Miroku and then Sesshomaru... the dai youkai training her because reiki was much akin to yokai... had confirmed. But she had gained enough mastery over the wildly uncontrolled spiritual energy over the years now, having practiced herself to near exhaustion many times, that she was capable of reaching out with her senses without raising her spiritual energy too much.

Her senses, like a sixth sense of sorts informing her of auras to living things, found Ichigo's room first as he was so close. Her cousin wasn't alone though and Kagome immediately froze as two energy signatures touched her mind. One was small, barely noticeable, and the other was larger but not considerably threatening. _What the hell?_


	7. Chapter 7

**_Stories that should be read_**

It's the Fear - Harry Potter x Inuyasha

Guarded - Avengers x Inuyasha

Lying from Me - Naruto x Inuyasha

It's Who We Are - BLEACH x Inuyasha

_-.-_

_thoughts_

_*****mental conversations*****_

**_amplified thoughts/meanings_**

* * *

_What is in the room with Ichigo? _The question as it curled through Kagome Higurashi's mind was greeted with a sense of apprehension and... what.

Delight? Pleasure? No they weren't quite the right emotions but they were close. Since she had found herself back in her world, within the depths of modern Japan instead of feudal Japan and elsewhere she would not lie and say that she was finding herself at peace. Instead she was incredibly _**bored.** _Pretending to be a normal girl, a normal older 18 year old teenager, was something that evaded her. It was virtually impossible. One of the reasons why she hadn't been capable of staying within the Sunset Shrine happened to be the fact that she couldn't pretend to be normal anymore.

Not when she had abilities at the edge of her fingertips that had not graced the Higurashi household for generations, centuries even. Whomever would have known that she was not Kikyo's incarnation but rather the other's descendent and that her power... Kikyo's power... was not a god given ability as one would believe but rather a genetic trait that had origins far older than mikos. Was it possible that they were the descendants of hanyous whose abilities had warped for a more human means? Or something else. Kagome had never understood except for the simple fact that her reiki energy had been similar enough to Sesshomaru's yokai that the dai-youkai had taught her more in six months than Miroku and Keade had ever succeeded to do in two years.

With this thought in mind, her senses awhirl with the sensation... the energy... that crept from Ichigo's bedroom across the hallway, Kagome Higurashi pushed the heavy wool of the comforter from her frame. Lithe muscling, from three years of having travelled through the depths of feudal Japan, tightened as she swung her legs out from the edge of the bed flinching slightly as her feet made contact with the cool floor. Shaking her head, shivering, Kagome shoved her feet into the slippers at the edge of her bed and then reaching out, assured now that she was awake that no it wasn't her imagination playing tricks on her, Kagome grabbed for her bathrobe pulling the cloth tightly on.

There was someone... no two somethings... with Ichigo.

* * *

**CHARACTER CHANGE - Ichigo Kurosaki**

"What are you doing here?" The question escaped through clenched lips as a hiss as Ichigo Kurosaki considered the slight dark haired female standing on the edge of his window. A sense of deja vu tickled his mind from more than a year ago when he had first met the Shinigami. "Rukia."

However Rukia Kuchiki, lieutenant of the 13th Division and adopted sister of Byakuya Kuchiki, seemed utterly unmoved by his comment as she turned blue eyes upon him. "There was a disturbance in this area of the town."

It wasn't an unusual claim, after all Rukia did assist him in patrolling the town that had served as home for Ichigo for years. However, the comment itself was out of the blue and as sudden as it was immediately drew Ichigo's mind to Kagome sleeping in the guest bedroom across from the hall. He was reminded of the pink energy and the warmth which had flooded his veins as his older cousin had touched his hand. It wasn't possible that Rukia had sensed that sensation himself for despite the pink glow and the heat the energy that had passed between Ichigo and Kagome had been so controlled and condensed that had she not been touching him he wouldn't have felt it.

"Yeah, so what?" Shoving thoughts of Kagome from his mind... she was not part of the upcoming war... Ichigo scowled at the small female. "Was it a Hollow or something?"

The Shinigami's cheeks puffed in a display that was much like an annoyed child before. "No it was..."

The rest of the sentence died as without any warning, and less ceremony, Ichigo's bedroom door slammed open.


End file.
